On May 26, China’s first salt cavern compressed air energy storage (CAES) power plant project successfully got connected to the grid, which is a national CAES demonstration project located in Jintan District, Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province. Shanghai Electric provided three 30MW compressor-driven motors that are key facilities of this World’s first CAES power plant using non-staged combustion technologies as they provide continuous compressed dynamics.

As the only national CAES demonstration project in China so far and the first in commercial use, the power plant adopts salt carven-based CAES, a new energy storage technology that compresses air into gigantic cavities created by solution mining for salts during off-peak hours and generates power by releasing air during peak hours for peak-load shifting and enhancing grid adjustment capabilities. It is estimated that the project can cut the use of standard coal by 30,000 tons and CO2 emission by 60,800 tons every year after it starts operation commercially, which underlines its remarkable efficacy in building a new-type power system and helping to attain goals of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality”.

Shanghai Electric Machinery MFG Works Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Shanghai Electric, (hereinafter referred to as “Shanghai Electric Machinery”) collaborated and communicated closely with China National Salt Industry Group Co., Ltd., China Huaneng Energy Group Co., Ltd., Tsinghua University and China Energy Engineering Group Jiangsu Power Design Institute Co., Ltd. A new R&D platform was adopted for comprehensively optimizing large-capacity asynchronous and synchronous motors using in CAES application scenarios to improve their energy efficiency, and furthermore ensured the power-electric energy conversion efficiency of the whole energy storage and power generation unit was well aligned with goals of energy saving, carbon reduction and optimized energy allocation. Meanwhile, the R&D team has performed a series of researches and bespoke designs on the motors to meet the energy storage motor’s practical need of frequent starting and stopping by increasing its reliability, in which way they ensure the safety and stability of the units for the long run.

Dedicated to developing “state-of-the-art motors”, Shanghai Electric Machinery effectively managed both production schedule and product quality by making special plans and enhancing deviation analysis throughout the whole process, and finally produced motors, the key performance indexes of which are much higher than what is stipulated in the contract, showing Shanghai Electric Machinery’s strength in both R&D and manufacturing.

As realizing goals of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” has become mainstream, Shanghai Electric Machinery is and will be committed to developing and manufacturing high-quality motors that are safe and efficient with low carbon emission to better support national strategies, green transformation of the society and economy, and goals of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality".